GOP moves backward on divorce

Today we highlight the GOP’s latest move in its relentless quest to turn America into a 1950s sitcom.

As if the Republican Party didn’t have enough image problems, now comes an old white Iowan who thinks it would be a boffo idea to make it harder for couples with kids to divorce.

In one of those rare and delightful cases where a man’s name matches his rhetoric, Iowa state Rep. Tedd Gassman is pushing a bill that would prohibit parents of minor children from getting a “no fault” divorce, essentially because divorce can turn girls into harlots.

The only thing missing from this episode of “Leave it to Gassman” is a laugh track. And lest you console yourself with the idea that every state legislature has a resident loony, the divorce bill was backed by six other Republicans and actually cleared a subcommittee.

On Monday, Gassman said the need to ban no-fault divorce is “near and dear” to his heart because his daughter recently divorced, leaving his female grandchild at risk of promiscuity. The fact that this poor teen has been nationally outed as a potential slut and publicly humiliated by her grandfather is apparently of less concern. Nor is Gassman troubled by the 1950s-era anguish caused when couples were forced to stay in bad and loveless marriages.

“There’s a 16-year-old girl in this whole mix now,” Gassman announced. “Guess what? What are the possibilities of her being more promiscuous? What are the possibilities of all these other things surrounding her life that a 16-year-old girl, with hormones raging, can get herself into?”

Gassman failed to show similar alarm for the raging hormones of male children, perhaps because boys will be boys, and girls are incapable of taking care of themselves without emergency GOP intervention. Nor did he cite any studies to support his notion that parental break-ups turn female children into sluts, but he did speak about the importance of dads.

“This basically is an attempt on my part to keep fathers in the home,” Gassman said. “I sincerely believe that the family is the foundation of this nation and this nation will go the direction of our families. If our families break up, so will this nation.”

All 50 states currently allow no-fault divorce. Gassman’s bill would allow divorce only in cases of adultery, physical abuse, imprisonment, if one partner is missing for more than a year or the couple has lived apart for more than two years.

Wednesday, the Des Moines Register reported that timing won’t allow the divorce bill to get a hearing before the full committee — this year. But we really must keep an eye on these guys. No sooner do we look away than they’re trying to shutter Planned Parenthood, demanding that women seeking abortions undergo vaginal probes, creating weird definitions of “forcible rape” and restricting a woman’s right to choose.

First they try to tell us who can marry. Now they try to control who can divorce. They want to force unhappy straight couples to stay hitched and ban marriage for happy gay couples, whose unions would foster the strong families and communities of which they’re so fond.

With all of Gassman’s concerns for his granddaughter, he’s oblivious to the harm caused to his party every time an old Republican guy opines about sex. Consistently, they’re as clueless as Dennis Rodman when he talks about North Korea.

The scary difference is, the Republicans wield actual power. How did a party that once touted individual freedom become so fixated on denying our sexual liberties? Why can’t they apply the same energy to jobs and the economy?